McDonnell returns Dragas to expanded UVA Board

Two weeks after UVA students and faculty followed Rector Helen Dragas to her car after a marathon closed-door Board of Visitors meeting yelling “Resign!,” Governor Bob McDonnell announced that the much-criticized Board leader would keep her seat. And despite the anger directed at her for her role in orchestrating the ultimately unsuccessful ouster of President Teresa Sullivan, the message coming from University community leaders is one of reconciliation.

“I have been heartened by the recent statement made by President Sullivan, the Board of Visitors, and by the Faculty Senate chair about their ability to work with the rector,” McDonnell said in a Friday press release explaining his decision to reappoint Dragas.The governor’s other appointments were noteworthy, too. Four new names join the Board as voting members: Frank Atkinson, a Richmond lobbyist and McGuire Woods chairman; Victoria Harker, a Gannett executive and chair of the Alumni Association; Bobbie Kilberg, a tech CEO and big-time Republican donor; and Linwood Rose, the outgoing president of James Madison University. Dr. Edward Miller, who has been serving as an ex-officio Board member, was given an official voting seat.

Robert D. Hardie—one of the three Board members who called for the emergency meeting to vote on Sullivan’s reinstatement—was up for reappointment, but didn’t keep his seat. Heywood Fralin and Glynn Key weren’t eligible for reappointment.

McDonnell also created two non-voting advisory positions on the Board, appointing Leonard Sandridge, UVA’s former executive vice president and chief operating officer, and William Goodwin, a former Board member and a former chair of the Darden School Board of Trustees.

Conspicuously absent from the new spate of appointments was the faculty representative many at the University had called for—a change that faculty have said could take time to institute.

While many raged on Facebook, Twitter, and news story comments over the governor’s apparent unwillingness to acknowledge the fury and will of the University community, the official line from UVA has been calm acceptance of the new appointments.

Despite having repeatedly called for Dragas’ resignation, the Faculty Senate signalled support, with chairman George Cohen commending McDonnell for his “careful, thoughtful consideration of these appointments and for his eloquent statement explaining his decision.”
Spanish professor and UVA alumnus Ricardo Padron was one of a number of people who said he felt the outcome of the Sullivan saga was a mark in the rector’s favor. “I think Helen Dragas is to be commended for finding a dignified and honorable solution to the crisis,” he said. “The entire University is indebted to the Board for being able to come to a solution that has brought the University together like never before.”

Even Sullivan spoke up, saying McDonnell “used great wisdom” in appointing the new members.

And in her statement on her reappointment Friday, Dragas took pains to stress the importance of including the entire UVA community in pushing the University toward success.

“Each of us on the Board looks forward to working in a constructive and inclusive way with President Sullivan, along with students, faculty, alumni, and staff on tackling the broad challenges that face the University,” she said. Laura Ingles and Graelyn Brashear both contributed to this story.

When Lawrence Gaughan announced in April his latest bid for office—he ran for the 5th District congressional seat last year and this year is running for the Albemarle Board of Supervisors—he made his announcement at the Bamboo House way up U.S. 29 practically in Greene County, and noted in a

On July 29, three Phi Kappa Psi fraternity brothers and UVA graduates filed a complaint against Rolling Stone, Wenner Media and journalist Sabrina Erdely in U.S. District Court for the now-discredited and retracted November 2014 story titled “A Rape on Campus,” which described the alleged gang

So here’s the current conventional political wisdom about Virginia: a once-reliable Republican bastion that has, in recent years, drifted toward the Democrats in presidential election years due to a certain charismatic candidate (hint: his name rhymes with Shmarock Mobana), and has therefore

It’s affordable, actually sustainable and certainly not the modern American lifestyle most have become accustomed to, with multiple cars per family, smart phones for everyone and streaming video on demand. The 5-year-old project called Living Energy Farm is an off-the-grid,

Five people were killed in four separate car accidents last week, and four of those deaths occurred within 48 hours. The high number of vehicular deaths in such a short amount of time is unusual, according to Carter Johnson, spokesperson for the Albemarle County Police Department, “We’ve had

A 2011 Dodge Avenger left running in the parking lot at Guadalajara with a baby in the backseat July 26 rolled across Market Street and crashed into a truck in the parking lot beside the Charlottesville Recreation Center. The baby was unharmed, according to Charlottesville Police’s Steve Upman.

On Monday, McGraw Hill Financial announced it had signed a definitive agreement to buy Charlottesville-based SNL Financial for $2.225 billion in cash from privately held New Mountain Capital. Jason Feuchtwanger from McGraw Hill says his company is committed to Charlottesville as a strategic

Five days after the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team won the FIFA World Cup on July 5, a group of young female soccer players from the Charlottesville area had an international victory of their own. The Soccer Organization of Charlottesville-Albemarle Elite U14 Girls won the Italy

The newest proposed route for the 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline, announced July 15, would avoid a pending historic district around Wingina in southern Nelson County, but cut through a state wildlife management area along the James River. On July 14, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision

In 2013, City Council candidates in the Democratic primary spent an average of around $2,500. In this year’s June primary, that average number soared to nearly $19,000. And the surge in spending is causing some concern. “I am worried the cost is going up and will discourage people from

It’s a Friday morning in late June, and Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford is sitting on the patio at Java Java Coffee Shop on the Downtown Mall, a few blocks away from the courtroom where, in a hearing a day earlier, Albemarle Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Higgins declined

The controversial development that puts a Fairfield Inn on the corner of Ridge Street and Cherry Avenue, nixed by the Planning Commission 5-0 and rejected by more than 500 petition-signing residents, got a 3-2 go-ahead from City Council July 21. The Southern Development project was in front of

If you’re like us, you spend at least a few minutes every day thinking “What’s good ol’ Jim up to these days?” Jim being, of course, former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore, the visionary leader who won the commonwealth’s highest office by promising to eliminate Virginia’s much-hated car tax.

Local realtor and Ivy resident Andrew Middleditch, 55, was charged with felony involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence July 13, a charge stemming from a May 25 crash in which Lonnie Wycliffe Branham, 78, was killed on Barracks Road. Middleditch previously had been charged

As features editor for Zimbabwe’s largest daily paper, The Herald, in the capital city of Harare, Roselyne Sachiti doesn’t shy away from tough stories, even if they place her in danger. The 33- year-old journalist has gone undercover to investigate the smuggling of clothes into her country, an

Minutes before top Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s helicopter landed on the grounds of the Trump Winery in southern Albemarle County on Tuesday, July 14, a soft breeze rustled the grapevines on the 1,300-acre estate and, in an occurrence that might have seemed eerily

Robert Tracci’s first job out of law school was in Congress as counsel to a House committee. He worked in the Justice Department in Washington in 2006, and was a federal prosecutor in Charlottesville two years later. Despite the glittery resume, some Democrats are asking if the Republican

The darling of 21st-century community design is the “planned unit development,” which typically combines commercial and residential for high-density, pedestrian friendly living. So when the developer of the already controversial William Taylor Plaza PUD told City Council July 6 there was no

Earl Smith’s best-known foray into civic engagement came in 2013 when former Scottsville supervisor Chris Dumler was convicted of misdemeanor sexual battery—and refused to resign from the Board of Supervisors while spending weekends in jail. Smith decided to do something about it. “We have so

For as much legislation passed that demands identification to vote, voter fraud is still a pretty rare crime. That’s why it was eyebrow-raising last month that not one, but two people were arrested in Albemarle County for election fraud for allegedly making false statements, and one of them is